biggest deer you passed on

champset · Jul 7, 2004

A few years ago I was bowhunting with my brother along the Wasatch Front. We came across a couple of nice bucks and made our stock. We slid around the backside of a ridge to gain ground on the deer. As we were sneaking around the deer came over the ridge, walked out onto one of the ridge fingers, and stood broadside. My brother and I were on another finger about 50-60 yards away. Since I had the tag my brother told me to take the shot. I thought about it and then decided to pass up the shot because I felt that it was a little beyond my range. One of the bucks was a 3-point with probably a 20" spread. The other buck was a 4-point with about a 30" spread. I still think about the situation every now and again, and wonder what if I had taken the shot, but I know deep down that I made the right decision by passing up the trophy.

-champset

soupcreek · Jul 8, 2004

This last fall I was muzzleloader hunting in the La Sals just east of Moab, UT. My buddy and I made about a two hour hike to get to a ridge that has consistently had good deer on it. We found a good vantage point to watch the deer come out of their normal bedding area. We spotted 3-4 bucks coming out of the top of a finger of trees. One was a good 3 pt., one was a little two pt., the other was a real good 4 point with deep forks. He was probably about 26-27" wide. They were about 300 yards away, so we tried to move in close enough for a shot. On our way there, two other bucks came out between us and the big buck. They were both willowy 4 pt's about 20-24 inches wide. They provided us with an easy 50 yrd shot. We briefly discussed it and agreed that we would rather pass on the little four points for a chance at the big one. A couple minutes later, all the deer busted and we didn't even get a shot off. After it was over, we were dissappointed, but still glad we didn't settle. As a side note, as we were walking to the next ridge to look for more deer, we busted an even bigger buck. We were just moving to the next ridge to start hunting again and forgot to pay attention. I won't make that mistake again. He was real heavy horned and 28-30"er.
The smaller 4 points are the biggest deer I have passed up, but not the biggest deer I have screwed up.

SoTX · Jul 8, 2004

Opening morning 1995 I passed on the largest white tail buck I had ever had a chance to take. Put the crosshairs on him and passed. Thought I would see something bigger. My best friend took that deer a month later and it gross scored 179 B&C. I still beat myself up over that stupid decision.

"We MUST Hunt"

Hoosierbuck · Jul 9, 2004

We have to define "passing"...
Don't you think, especially in bowhunting, that there is a big difference in having the bow up and ready to shoot and just saying no, and merely having a buck within range? I call it passing when he's within range, but I decide not to try, but in terms of counting coup, you can't call it unless you're up and drawn, then decide not to let it fly. So much can happen to get you busted between seeing him and being drawn and ready to shoot.
With a rifle, if he's in range and in the crosshairs but you hold off-that's a pass.

Of course it is kind of passing when you decide not to try for a buck like the ones that popped up between the hunter and the buck he's stalking. You couldn't count coup on those ones though.

I passed on a nice whitey last year that had the body of a cow, but a short-tined 5x5 rack. Eyed him through binos and the scope, and he was in range. He was big, and I held off and shot the buck in the gallery about 15 minutes later within yards of where I had glassed the other one. I am not upset with that decision, but it could have gone either way and I'd be happy, as long as one of them went down before the season ended.
HB

Buckrub · Jul 9, 2004

Three years ago on Md's opening day, I passed on a decent 7 pt. @ 25yds. w/ my .300RUM.
I had already taken 10 deer, that season, and he was no "hammer", to say the least.
I had a "refuge" permit for later that wk. and figured on hold'in out for a big'un. I ended up getting a spike sika deer @ the refuge, and sometimes to this day I still think I should have nailed that 7 pt. :7

kingfish · Jul 9, 2004

26" 4x4

RACKMASTER · Jul 9, 2004

38" plus old and gray very heavy mass, white antered 4x4 monster with junk! eye guards 5" in the Paunsagunt in 2000 110 yard away across med side draw, a$$ to me looking back at me 9:30 am!!!!
REALLY!!
All I COULD THINK WAS "WOW", BAD SHOT!!, "WOW", BAD SHOT!!.
I could not shoot beautiful king in the "A$$" I still to this day think about that morning every day!
My buddies all would have done that shot(but they never got drawn for a Premium LE tag) but I let him walk!!
Right or wrong???
(those same guys harvest 1x2's all the time)

I swept around found his deep tracks but he just vanished!! I actually laugh about that!
Ended up with a fine 29" 4X4 with nubs for eye guards!
RACKMASTER

BCBOY · Jul 9, 2004

I've passed many big bucks due to poor shot opportunities. The biggest was a huge nontypical that if he didn't net Book, he would have been damn close. Had a split second opportunity for a running away shot up his a$$. I chose to wait and see if I could get a better shot. I ran into the timber that he disappeared into and it was head high with rhodo and azelea. I knew that big bugger was standing right in there only yards from me but I couldn't see him. I still see his antlers in my mind when I close my eyes these many years later, trash going everywhere.

RACKMASTER · Jul 9, 2004

SAD! SAD! WE STILL MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE EVEN THOUGH IT EATS AT US! I guess that makes us true sportsmen!
Enjoy your scouting trip!
Rackmaster

Cowboy · Jul 10, 2004

I passed on a buck one time that it will never be forgotten.

I was having a beer with a buddy on his front porch one evening after we got done building a new feed pen at his place. He told me the rabbits on his place the biggest he'd ever seen. Wasn?t long before we heard scratching and gravel flying and here comes a dog with a rabbit in hot pursuit around the corner. I never seen a 80# lab go in an 8? irrigation pipe before, but this one did and the rabbit broke off the chase.

Later on we got around to talking deer, and he said the deer were the same as rabbits. Critters had a mineral lick on his place that had something peculiar in it that made em huge. When he invited me to hunt I jumped at the chance.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we jumped a buck out of a thicket that was so huge I thought it was an elk. It got its antler hooked around a mature juniper and yanked it right out of the ground...root and all as it was getting away. We were dodging boulders the size of basketballs that it kicked loose. My buddy said don't shoot. He said there were bigger. He hadn't lied so far so I held off. We never did see that deer or another like it again.

Come to find out that the federal government bought his place and put concertina wire all around it. There is a few ill-humored guys in green suits and flat hats at the gate now. If you try and go through they get kind of excited and start waving machine guns and rocket launchers around. We keep our distance now.

berto · Jul 22, 2004

LAST EDITED ON Jul-22-04 AT 03:23PM (MST)[p]in '99 i was exploring some new country a couple hours drive from home. i had two evenings with a full day between to hunt, and the muley rut was just ripening so i was in no hurry to shoot my buck. i spent my first afternoon looking over some small pieces of public land intermixed with private...all included shallow coulees with little cover and wheat stubble fields. I put the sneak on a group of eight deer bedded along the shady side of a coulee and got with 50 yds...too bad the best buck in the group was a 20-inch 4x. i backed out of there and headed for the pick-up because dusk was approaching and i wasn't sure where i wanted to park my pick-up and sleep for the night to be in a good location for a first-light hunt the next day.

i drove south and kept an eye on the wheat fields...there was about 15 min. of shooting light left when i spotted a group of deer on the east side of the county road so i slowed down to get a look...all does. but, as i rolled to a stop, i looked up the road about 800 yards and saw a couple deer crossing from west to east...the deer in front seemed to be annoyed by the one that followed with it's head down almost at ground-level. sure enough, i raised my binocs to find the second deer was a really nice 26" 4x, obviously rutting. unfortunately, the two deer had just crossed from public land to private. i drove slowly up the road to where all the deer now stood feeding in the private stubble field about 250 yards away and glassed the buck until dark, then headed off further south to park and get a fitful night of sleep.

the next day, i hunted another area in the morning and early afternoon, then i drove back to where i saw the 26"er to locate the private landowner and ask permission to hunt. the farmer was real nice and told me to go right ahead and hunt that evening.

i arrived at the stubble field a couple hours before dusk, parked my p/u about a mile down the road from where i had watched the buck in the stubble the night before. i crawled out into the field along a real shallow coulee. i laid there, about 600 yds from the road and waited for dusk...four or five hungarian partridge walked around me within 10 yards while i lay there. i was concerned that they might spook and send any deer in the area running. finally, about 15 minutes before the end of shooting light, i saw a few deer stand up in the CRP land to the south. i prepared myself mentally and began glassing to find the 26" shooter. i studied each of the nine deer as they stood to feed, and as the light faded to darkness, i realized my buck was gone! i guessed his rutting had taken him elsewhere as he followed another hot doe. the best buck in the group was now a 20" 2x...no thanks, but it was fun trying!

that 26" 4x was the best buck i have ever passed on...if only i had known the farmer would have been so easy-going about giving hunting permission, but better to be safe and legal and get permission first than to shoot first and ask permission later!